Automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system

ABSTRACT

A system and method that includes several automatic purchasing features. The method includes establishing purchasing criteria for items to be purchased, and automatically searching marketplaces for availability of the items to be purchased. The method also includes identifying available items, of the items to be purchased, that meet the established purchasing criteria.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/132,354, filed Jun. 3, 2008, which isbased on and claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 60/933,078, filed Jun. 4, 2007, the content of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present embodiments relate to purchasing of items and theconsolidation and redistribution of those purchased items. Moreparticularly, the present embodiments relate to automatic purchasing,consolidation, and redistribution of items based on predeterminedpurchasing and receiving criteria.

BACKGROUND

There are a number of public online or electronic markets that are opento buyers and sellers in a particular industry or region. For example,online book selling and purchasing marketplaces include Amazon,Half.com, Alibris, Abebooks and eBay. Books can be marketed throughthese web sites and also purchased from these web sites. Manuallysearching for a book on each of these web sites to check availability,get the best price and/or quality etc., is typically complex and timingconsuming. Further, since books are sold relatively rapidly in theonline market, they are often missed when a manual book search iscarried out.

SUMMARY

A system and method that includes several automatic purchasing featuresis provided. The method includes establishing purchasing criteria foritems to be purchased, and automatically searching marketplaces foravailability of the items to be purchased. The method also includesidentifying available items, of the items to be purchased, that meet theestablished purchasing criteria.

This summary is not intended to describe each disclosed embodiment orevery implementation of the item-purchasing and consolidation system.Many other novel advantages, features, and relationships will becomeapparent as this description proceeds. The figures and the descriptionthat follow more particularly exemplify illustrative embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of an automatic item-purchasing andconsolidation system in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram that shows examples of userinterfaces that the automatic item-purchasing and consolidation systemof FIG. 1 can include.

FIG. 3 is simplified block diagram that illustrates an example of howthe automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system can be used tosatisfy orders.

FIG. 4 is a simplified flowchart of a method embodiment.

While the above-identified figures set forth one or more embodiments ofthe automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system, otherembodiments are also contemplated, as noted in the disclosure. In allcases, this disclosure presents the automatic item-purchasing andconsolidation system by way of representation and not limitation. Itshould be understood that numerous other modifications and embodimentscan be devised by those skilled in the art which fall within the scopeand spirit of the principles of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

Disclosed is a system for automatically purchasing items based onidentified strategic criteria for purchasing the items. Specifically,the system is capable of receiving orders for items, substantiallycontinually scouring multiple marketplaces to purchase the items whencertain purchasing criteria are met, receiving the items, verifyingtheir quality and correctness upon receipt, redistributing verifieditems to the appropriate buyers and securing monetary reimbursement fornon-verified items (items that do not meet predetermined receivingcriteria for quality, correctness, etc.).

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of such an automaticitem-purchasing and consolidation system. Components of purchasingsystem 100 include an item and purchasing criteria entry component 102,an automatic item search and purchasing component 104 and an itemreceiving and handling component 110. Item and purchasing criteria entrycomponent 102 can be a screen in which items and their correspondingpurchasing criteria can be entered. In general, component 102 can be anysuitable component for loading items and their corresponding purchasingcriteria. In some embodiments, component 102 is simply an input ofautomatic item search and purchasing component 104. Automatic itemsearch and purchasing component 104 utilizes the items and criteria thatare received via component 102 and scours multiple marketplaces 106 (forexample, online marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Half.com, eBay.com,etc.) to purchase items from sellers based on the entered criteria. Itshould be noted that each marketplace has multiple sellers and eachseller can sell multiple items. In the interest of simplification, FIG.1 shows multiple sellers 107 only associated with marketplace 1.Similarly, multiple items 109 are shown only associated with seller 1 inmarketplace 1. Purchased items 108 are physically sent to a location atwhich an item receiving and handling component 110 is utilized toreceive the items electronically utilizing a barcode scanner, forexample. Component 110 is also used to consolidate the received itemsbased on predetermined criteria and to ship the received purchased itemsto buyers. Additional details regarding individual components of theautomatic item-purchasing and consolidation system 100 are providedbelow.

In one embodiment, automatic item search and purchasing component 104 isdivided into different sub-components, with each sub-component carryingout one or more separate functions. As can be seen in FIG. 1, thesub-components can include a search module 112, a purchasing module 114,a communication module 116 and a push-offer module 118. Search module112 is configured to automatically search electronic marketplaces foravailability of items to be purchased, and also configured to identifyavailable items, of the items to be purchased, that meet the establishedpurchasing criteria. Purchasing module 114 is configured toautomatically purchase the available identified items from sellers inthe electronic marketplaces. Communication component 116 automaticallyprovides the sellers in the electronic marketplaces, from whom theavailable identified items were purchased, with an address of aconsolidation location to which the purchased items should be shipped.As noted above, item receiving and handling component 110 is configuredto electronically receive the purchased items at the consolidationlocation. In one embodiment, component 110 includes sub-components suchas a send to buyer module 122 and a return to seller module 124. Thesesub-components are described further below.

As can be seen in FIG. 1, box 120, which represents buyers, is coupledto item and purchasing criteria entry component 102. As used herein, abuyer can be an individual, a store (such as a bookstore) or anelectronic entity such as a computerized inventory system of a storethat generates orders with item-lists and automatically electronicallysends these orders, via any suitable interface, to automaticitem-purchasing and consolidation system 100. In some embodiments, itemand purchasing criteria entry component 102 comprises an interface thatautomatically electronically receives orders from buyers and providesthe orders in a suitable format to search module 112. As indicatedabove, each of the orders comprises an item-list, and the item-listsincluded in the orders collectively constitute the items to bepurchased. In summary, in such embodiments, an electronic entity, suchas a computerized inventory system of a store, creates a list of itemsthat are needed and sends the items to the automatic item-purchasing andconsolidation system 100, which, instead of searching in a warehouse,scours online marketplaces for the items and purchases available items.In some embodiments, by using store identification information andoutstanding order information, system 100 is capable of, upon executionof a purchase of a particular item, reporting the purchase of that itemalong with the purchase price to the appropriate store. Thus, the storesare automatically updated about the progress made in filling theirorders.

It should be noted that sellers in the online marketplace do not haveany standard shipping labels that can be used for receiving thepurchased items at the consolidation location and therefore, in oneembodiment, a first and last name and a suite number, generated bysystem 100, that uniquely identifies a purchased item is provided to theseller of that item. Of course, as noted above, the seller is alsoprovided with a mailing address of the consolidation location. When anitem arrives at the consolidation location, it is received with the helpof item receiving and handling component 110. In one embodiment, thereceiving process involves utilizing a unique name and suite numbercombination on a package that has arrived to match the item(s) in thepackage with a list of items that are expected to be received. It shouldbe noted that, if a package that has arrived includes multiple items,each having different suite numbers, component 110 is capableappropriately matching, using only one of the different suite numbers,the multiple items with the list of items that are expected to bereceived. Here, component 110 utilizes information related to purchaseditems that are expected to be received and seller information to carryout the multiple-item matching process. If a received item is neitherdamaged nor incorrect, a bin number is assigned to the received item. Insome embodiments, the assigned bin number is automatically printed on alabel, and the printed label is affixed to the item. The bin numberidentifies a consolidation bin corresponding to a particular buyer thatthe received item has to be shipped to. Send to buyer module 122 is usedto track any ship dates requested by buyers and to handle any electronicaspects related to shipping of received items to buyers. If a receiveditem is either damaged or incorrect, the received item is returned tothe corresponding seller. Any electronic aspects of the return processare handled by return to seller module 124. Thus, return to sellermodule 124 provides system 100 with the capability of automaticallypursuing and tracking reimbursement for missing/incorrect/damaged itemsthat are received. In some embodiments, subsequent to receiving thepurchased items at the consolidation location, feedback information,regarding at least some of the sellers, is automatically provided to thecorresponding marketplaces in which those sellers operate.

Historical information of the received purchased items and thecorresponding sellers is maintained within system 100. In general, thehistorical information is utilized to automatically refine theestablished purchasing criteria. For example, the historical informationcan be used to automatically classify the sellers and thereby produceseller classification information. The seller classification informationcan include a “blacklisted” category assigned by return to seller module124 to sellers of damaged items. The seller classification informationcan be incorporated into the established purchasing criteria to producethe refined established purchasing criteria.

In some embodiments, if a seller has listed an item for sale at a pricehigher than a predetermined threshold price for that item set withinsystem 100, an offer to buy the item at the predetermined thresholdprice is automatically made to the seller by push-offer module 118. Forexample, the seller may receive automatic communication from push-offermodule 118 directing the seller to click on a particular link toimmediately sell the item at the lower predetermined threshold price.Thus, system 100 is also capable of automatically carrying out a dialogor negotiating with a seller.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram that shows examples of userinterfaces that the automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system100 of FIG. 1 can include. Although a substantial portion of theautomatic item-purchasing and consolidation system 100 of FIG. 1comprises background processes that run without any user interventionand substantially continually search online marketplaces toautomatically purchase items, system configuration operations, viewingof order status information and various other historical information,etc., is carried out via user interfaces that comprise menus, forexample. In general, each menu option is associated with a “role.” Onceauthenticated, utilizing any suitable authentication technique, a useronly sees those menu options associated with that user's role. Exampleroles include “administrator,” “buyer” and “receiver.” In FIG. 2, box200 represents data and background functions included in automaticitem-purchasing and consolidation system 100. Different user interfacessuch as an administrative interface 202, a reports interface 204, areceiving interface 206, an order interface 208 and a bidding interface210 are shown in different boxes in FIG. 2. However, the differentinterfaces can instead be different menu items or sub-menus of a singleinterface. A buyer has access to order interface 208 through whichoutstanding orders for that buyer can be viewed, for example. Also,buyers have access to bidding interface 210 through which prices thatbuyers are willing to pay for items can be submitted. A receiver at theconsolidation location has access to reports interface 204 and receivinginterface 206. Of course, an administrator has access to all systemprograms and interfaces.

FIG. 3 is simplified block diagram that illustrates an example of howthe automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system 100 can be usedto satisfy orders from buyers. In the Example shown in FIG. 3, thebuyers are buyer A and buyer B that electronically send their orders toautomatic search and purchasing component 104 of system 100. Here, buyerA and buyer B are bookstores that automatically submit their orders,from their respective inventory systems, as item-lists. In the exampleshown in FIG. 3, buyer A submits item-list 1 that includes two differentbooks P and Q shown under the title column of item-list 1. Specifically,item-list 1 is a request for 3 (shown in the number column of item-list1) of book P and 4 of book Q. Buyer B submits item-list 2, whichincludes 3 of book Q and 4 of book R. As described above, component 104scours the marketplace(s) 106 for the books in the item-lists andautomatically purchases the books if established purchasing criteria forthe books are met. In the example shown in FIG. 3, 2 of book Q arepurchased from a seller 300 in marketplace 106. To uniquely identify the2 of book Q, the seller is given a first name Tyson, a last nameMotsinger and a suite number 211. The seller is also given a shippingaddress of a consolidation location. Once the books (2 of Q) arrive atthe consolidation location, they are matched with books that areexpected to be received and assigned to an appropriate bin in a mannerdescribed above. In the example of FIG. 3, bin A1 is for buyer A and binB1 is for buyer B. It should be noted that both buyer A and buyer Brequire book Q and therefore if item-list 1 was sent earlier thanitem-list 2, then the 2 of book Q are assigned to bin A1 for shipping tobuyer A, and after the requirements for buyer A are satisfied, thefilling of bin B based on item-list 2 begins. However, if buyer B offersa higher price for book Q than buyer A, the 2 of book Q are assigned tobin B2 to be shipped to buyer B, and other books Q that are purchasedand meet the established purchasing criteria are used to fulfill thebook Q requirement of bin B2 (i.e., until there are 4 books of Q). Then,books Q that are purchased and meet the established purchasing criteriaare used to fulfill the book Q requirement of bin A1. The filling oforders for books P and R for item-list 1 and item-list 2, respectively,takes place in a similar manner. Of course, any damaged or incorrectbooks are returned to the seller. Once bins A1 and B2 are filled, thebooks are shipped to buyer A and buyer B, respectively.

In conclusion, referring now to FIG. 4, a simplified flow diagram 400 ofa computer-implementable method embodiment is provided. A first step 402in the method of FIG. 9 involves establishing purchasing criteria foritems to be purchased. At step 404, marketplaces are automaticallysearched for availability of the items to be purchased. Step 406involves identifying available items, of the items to be purchased, thatmeet the established purchasing criteria. At step 408, the availableidentified items are automatically purchased from sellers in themarketplaces.

Further details regarding illustrative embodiments are disclosed in thesection below, entitled “MarketPlace PowerBuyer Overview.”

Marketplace Powerbuyer Overview

Marketplace PowerBuyer (MPB) is a new concept, process and softwareprogram developed by Nebraska Book Company (NBC) that allows for theextremely quick and effective evaluation and purchase of text and/ortrade books on student-to-student marketplaces—including sites likeAmazon.com or Half.com. The application was strategically designed tosupplement NBC's textbook inventory while at the same time directlyreducing the amount of online competition. By purchasing textbooksidentified in the Buyer's Guide at high discounts online, Nebraska BookCompany is acquiring inventory at a lower cost of goods and is alsodirectly removing low priced competitors from the online market.

Purchase Evaluation Process

In the heart of the Marketplace PowerBuyer application is the DynamicPurchase Evaluation Process—it is part of what makes the applicationtruly unique. This process is based on the buy strategy (the “PowerBuy”)selected before the buy is started (explained below) and occurs on everyoffer evaluated by the system. This ensures that the book beingpurchased is correct and of the highest quality. The process can beadjusted during the buy via a user interface to immediately modify thebuy strategy.

Purchase Evaluation Strategy and Selection

Each PowerBuy has a purchase strategy. This strategy describes thecriteria that must be successfully evaluated before MarketplacePowerBuyer can make a purchase. The strategy example below was developedfor the NBC Wholesale Division. The general logic behind this strategyexample is: Buy one-offs from students and small professional sellers(bookstores) selling books they believe do not have much value or theybelieve they cannot sell anywhere else. When buying at or below the NBCcalculated buy price, the likelihood that a very establishedprofessional seller (identified here as someone with greater than 500feedback) would have an offer at or below guide price is quite low.Additionally, high quantities available at low prices signal potentialannotated/comp or international editions.

For purchasing, the NBC Wholesale Division directly targetsnon-professional sellers (students) and small professional sellers(college bookstores) with low quantities behind an offer. “Poor” and“Acceptable” condition offers are always skipped, “too good to be true”priced offers are filtered out using a percent of buy price calculation.Keyword matching and absolute edition matching along with sellerblacklisting assist in controlling non-obvious bad purchases.

-   -   The seller has less than 750 feedback    -   The book is of “Good”, “Very Good” or “Like New” condition    -   The seller has 4 or fewer quantities behind an offer    -   Purchase price is not less than 70% of the NBC calculated buy        price

Note: PowerBuyer has the ability to track and control the total numberof quantity purchased.

Note: PowerBuyer automatically produces a daily purchase order for theassociated buy.

Note: PowerBuyer has the ability to log each offer (purchased or not) toa great level of detail. This includes the reason it failed thePowerBuyer Purchase Evaluation Process.

Note: PowerBuyer can cycle through a loaded buy list automatically, aninfinite number of times

Seller Comment Keywords Blacklisting

The existence of the following character patterns found ANYWHERE in theseller comments skips the said offer. This list is editable inreal-time.

“solution”, “publisher markings”, “mediapak only”, “media pak only”,“e-book”, “ebook”, “book on cd”, “ann”, “study”, “teacher”, “prof”,“inst”, “no cd”, “int”, “missi”, “fray”, “bent”, “tear”, “torn”,“water”, “damage”, “stain”, “workbook”, “not textbook”, “no textbook”,“not the book”, “not book”, “not included”, “no cd”, “without cd”, “w/ocd”, “defect”, “text only”, “book only”, “comp”, “only the text”, “onlytext”, “only the book”, “nocd” “solution”, “publisher markings”,“mediapak only”, “media pak only”, “e-book”, “ebook”, “book on cd”,“ann”, “study”, “teacher”, “prof”, “inst”, “no cd”, “int”, “missi”,“fray”, “bent”, “tear”, “torn”, “water”, “damage”, “stain”, “workbook”,“not textbook”, “no textbook”, “not the book”, “not book”, “notincluded”, “no cd”, “without cd”, “w/o cd”, “defect”, “text only”, “bookonly”, “comp”, “only the text”, “only text”, “only the book”, “nocd”

Edition Keyword Check and “Absolute Edition Matching”

The existence of characters similar to the word (or abbreviation)edition (ed. or ED, etc.) will identify the need for an Edition Checkand what we call “Absolute Edition Matching” to ensure that the correctedition is being offered by the seller. Marketplace PowerBuyer willidentify the correct edition associated with a loaded ISBN and attemptto do an absolute numeric and string based match on any of thecharacters in the offer comments. For example, if the correct edition is“9”, MPB will quickly attempt an absolute match on “9th ed”, 9thedition”, “9th ed.”, “ninth ed”, “ninth edition”, and “ninth ed.”against the seller comments. In parallel, MPB also ensures that theseller is not specifying that this is *not* the “9th edition”. MPBEdition Matching in seller comments is a very effective way to shieldagainst edition misrepresentation on the marketplace.

Seller Blacklisting

Certain sellers are currently blocked because they are either (a) one ofNBC's bookstores or (b) previously deemed to be a problem seller. Thislist is editable in real-time.

Purchase Evaluation Speed

Marketplace PowerBuyer cycles through a maximum of the ten (10) lowestpriced offers on Amazon for each of the 52,500 titles in the NBC BuyersGuide in about 62 minutes (on average, evaluating a maximum of 20 ISBNsor 200 seller offers a second)—yielding about 23 complete cycles throughthe list every 24 hours or a maximum of 11,960,000 total purchaseevaluations a day. This speed can further be increased by runningmultiple instances (an infinite number of instances is allowed—onlysubject to the available computing and bandwidth resources) of theapplication and sorting the loaded list to evaluate titles in adifferent order. For example, with only two instances of PowerBuyerrunning, NBC could effectively evaluate offers on every ISBN on the NBCBuyer's Guide on Amazon.com once every 31 minutes online and make anynecessary purchases (if applicable). This speed will be most effectivewhen running the application during peak buyback periods.

Illustrative Overview

The MPB software allows NBC to load in books or identify books that NBCwants to buy and continually scours multiple marketplaces and buys whenthe price is right and/or when other purchasing criteria are met. One ormultiple of these instances of software can be run simultaneously andcan constantly look at the internet market and buy books that meet NBC'sidentified strategic criteria. The strategic evaluation criteria are apart of NBC's purchase evaluation strategy. Books purchased using thesoftware are shipped to a central location and when those books arereceived, they are substantially immediately made available, on abidding type interface (for example), to college bookstores. The booksare bought off the web, and stores that come to NBC's application,whether on the web or through some other type of interface through NBC'smanagement systems in these stores, can bid on these books and buy themfrom NBC. The books takes a path down from the AMAZON.COM market place,for example, through NBC and are then available back to the bookstoresthrough a bidding type pricing model.

As stated earlier, NBC would be a consolidator. There are multiple waysin which the auctioning of purchased books can operate. In general, NBCwould buy the books and then put them up for sale again. In one specificembodiment, if a university, for example, liked NBC's model and waswilling pay a 4% premium to get NBC's book to be the first in line ofchoice, NBC would just add 4% to the price, and as soon as NBC filledits quota, that price would drop down and the next entity that iswilling to pay a 3% premium, for example, could purchase the remainingbooks at that lower price. If there are 2000 bookstores that need 100books, for example, one of them that is very aggressive could get all100 if they price aggressively because NBC would buy all 100 and ship tothem. The key aspect here is that NBC ships the books to them in aconsolidated fashion, which is a significant advantage over them havingto purchase the books individually.

In general, an individual/entity gets priority by paying more. NBC couldeven take capital up front and guarantee a price. NBC could adjust itspurchase price based on the guaranteed price. By taking capital upfront, NBC could only buy books that it knows will sell. In summary, thesoftware allows NBC to search multiple sites simultaneously andcontinuously in an automated fashion, with no human intervention, and toautomatically purchase books based on predetermined criteria. Thepurchased books flow into a specific location, where they areconsolidated, and flow back out on a competitive basis. The system couldinterface with bookstore ordering systems, which could inject orders fortextbooks into the system, for example. Additionally, the system couldtell a bookstore (Bookstore A) when other bookstores outbid Bookstore Afor those books.

In some embodiments, the system could grade the quality of booksreceived from different sellers and accordingly identify “good” and“bad” sellers. The grading system can be automated by utilizing a uniqueidentifier that ties a books mailed from a particular seller with ashipping destination. The unique identifier may be included on ashipping label as a barcode to facilitate relatively rapid processing.Information regarding sellers could be provided to marketplaces, such asAMAZON.COM, that the sellers utilized. In general, different types ofhistorical information regarding books, bookstores and sellers can bestored and utilized to improve the system. Thus, the system is, at leastin part, an adaptive item purchasing and consolidation system. It shouldbe noted that that the system can utilize any suitable automaticelectronic payment system for purchasing items from an onlinemarketplace.

Although the disclosed automatic item-purchasing and consolidationsystem has been described with reference to preferred embodiments,workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made inform and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. As indicated above, in a specific exemplary embodiment,automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system automaticallypurchases textbooks from individuals, such as college students, who posttheir books for sale on online marketplaces such as Amazon.com. Thepurchased books are provided to bookstores that resell the purchasedcollege textbooks. It should be noted that items purchased using theautomatic item-purchasing and consolidation system can include physicalitems, such as printed books, and electronic material such asdownloadable electronic books and electronic books stored on computerstorage media. It should also be noted that program code for individualcomponents of the automatic item-purchasing and consolidation system 100are stored on computer storage media and the automatic item-purchasingand consolidation system as a whole is computer implementable. Further,it should be noted that, as used herein, the term orders encompassesdemands where item-lists are submitted to the automatic item-purchasingand consolidation system for the purpose of replenishing inventory, butno payments are made when the demands are placed or satisfied.

1. A method comprising: establishing, by a computerized item search andpurchasing component, purchasing criteria for an item to be purchased;receiving, by the computerized item search and purchasing component, anorder that comprises the item to be purchased, the order being sent froma computerized order generation system; searching, by the computerizeditem search and purchasing component, electronic marketplaces foravailability of the item to be purchased; and in an electronicmarketplace of the electronic marketplaces, identifying, by thecomputerized item search and purchasing component, an available item, ofthe item to be purchased, that meets the established purchasingcriteria, wherein the searching is carried out, by the computerized itemsearch and purchasing component, using an identifier for the item to bepurchased, and wherein the purchasing criteria comprises: a blacklistkeyword list which is utilized to exclude any offer for sale for theitem to be purchased in the electronic marketplaces that has a term thatcorresponds to a term in the blacklist keyword list, and a feedbackthreshold which is utilized to exclude any offer for sale for the itemto be purchased in the electronic marketplaces that has a number ofcustomer feedback entries that is larger than the feedback threshold. 2.The method of claim 1 and further comprising purchasing, by a purchasingmodule of the item search and purchasing component, the item from aseller in the electronic marketplaces whose offer for sale for the itemis other than the excluded offers.
 3. The method of claim 2 and furthercomprising providing the seller in the electronic marketplaces, fromwhom the item was purchased, with an address of a consolidation locationto which the purchased item should be shipped.
 4. The method of claim 3and further comprising receiving, by an item receiving and handlingcomponent, the purchased item at the consolidation location.
 5. Themethod of claim 4 and further comprising shipping, from theconsolidation location, the purchased item to satisfy the request. 6.The method of claim 1 and further comprising negotiating, by apush-offer module, a purchase price of the available identified item. 7.The method of claim 6 and further comprising purchasing, by a purchasingmodule of the item search and purchasing component, the item from aseller in the electronic marketplaces whose offer for sale for the itemis other than the excluded offers and includes the negotiated purchaseprice.
 8. The method of claim 1 and further comprising purchasing, by apurchasing module of the item search and purchasing component, the itemfrom a seller in the electronic marketplaces whose offer for sale forthe item is other than the excluded offers and includes a price that isbelow a predetermined threshold price for the item.
 9. The method ofclaim 1 and further comprising purchasing, by a purchasing module of theitem search and purchasing component, the item from a seller in theelectronic marketplaces whose offer for sale for the item is other thanthe excluded offers and includes a price that is between an upper pricelimit and a lower price limit for the item.
 10. The method of claim 1and wherein the lower price limit is a predetermined percentage of acalculated buy price.
 11. The method of claim 1 and wherein theidentifier is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
 12. A methodcomprising: establishing, by a computerized item search and purchasingcomponent, purchasing criteria for an item to be purchased; receiving,by the computerized item search and purchasing component, an order thatcomprises the item to be purchased, the order being sent from acomputerized order generation system; searching, by the computerizeditem search and purchasing component, electronic marketplaces foravailability of the item to be purchased; and in an electronicmarketplace of the electronic marketplaces, identifying, by thecomputerized item search and purchasing component, an available item, ofthe item to be purchased, that meets the established purchasingcriteria, wherein the searching is carried out, by the computerized itemsearch and purchasing component, using an identifier for the item to bepurchased, and wherein the purchasing criteria comprises: a blacklistkeyword list which is utilized to exclude any offer for sale for theitem to be purchased in the electronic marketplaces that has a term thatcorresponds to a term in the blacklist keyword list, and an item offerquantity threshold which is utilized to exclude any offer for sale forthe item to be purchased in the electronic marketplaces that offers aquantity of the item that is larger than the item offer quantitythreshold.
 13. A method comprising: establishing, by a computerized itemsearch and purchasing component, purchasing criteria for an item to bepurchased; receiving, by the computerized item search and purchasingcomponent, an order that comprises the item to be purchased, the orderbeing sent from a computerized order generation system; searching, bythe computerized item search and purchasing component, electronicmarketplaces for availability of the item to be purchased; and in anelectronic marketplace of the electronic marketplaces, identifying, bythe computerized item search and purchasing component, an availableitem, of the item to be purchased, that meets the established purchasingcriteria, wherein the searching is carried out, by the computerized itemsearch and purchasing component, using an identifier for the item to bepurchased, and wherein the purchasing criteria comprises: a blacklistkeyword list which is utilized to exclude any offer for sale for theitem to be purchased in the electronic marketplaces that has a term thatcorresponds to a term in the blacklist keyword list, and excluding anyoffer for sale for the item to be purchased in the electronicmarketplaces that has a price below a lower price limit and a qualityabove a high quality limit.
 14. The method of claim 13 and wherein theidentifier is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
 15. A methodcomprising: receiving, by a computerized item search and purchasingcomponent, an order that comprises an item generated and sent from acomputerized order generation system; and establishing, by the itemsearch and purchasing component, purchasing criteria for the item, thepurchasing criteria comprises: an item offer quantity threshold which isutilized to exclude any seller in an electronic marketplace that offersa quantity of the item that is larger than the item offer quantitythreshold.
 16. The method of claim 15 and wherein the purchasingcriteria further comprises: a feedback threshold which is utilized toexclude any seller in the electronic marketplace that has a number ofcustomer feedback entries that is larger than the feedback threshold.17. The method of claim 15 and wherein the purchasing criteria furthercomprises: a blacklist keyword list which is utilized to exclude anyseller in the electronic marketplace that provides an offer for salethat has a term that corresponds to a term in the blacklist keywordlist.
 18. The method of claim 15 and further comprising purchasing, by apurchasing module of the item search and purchasing component, the itemfrom a seller in the electronic marketplace other than the excludedsellers.
 19. The method of claim 18 and further comprisingelectronically notifying, utilizing identification information for thepurchased item, the order generation system of acquisition of thepurchased item and the purchase price of the item.
 20. The method ofclaim 19 and further comprising providing the seller in the marketplace,from whom the item was purchased, with an address of a consolidationlocation to which the purchased item should be shipped.
 21. The methodof claim 20 and further comprising receiving, by an item receiving andhandling component, the purchased item at the consolidation location.22. The method of claim 21 and further comprising shipping, from theconsolidation location, the purchased item to satisfy the order.